I don't think it's particularly creative, mind you - a sci fi show that's set in present-day so they don't have to spend money on sets, props and scenery (I'm so thirsty for a good old fashioned space opera I could scream and throw some Farscape eps in the player).

But that's not about creativity, it's about budget. Space operas are expensive because of all the exotic sets and makeup and FX and so forth. It's much more economical to do something set in our world so you can use existing locations and props, ordinary costumes and vehicles, actors without elaborate prosthetics, etc. Heck, even Star Trek had a bunch of Earth-duplicate cultures and time-travel episodes so they could reuse stuff from historical movies, and the TNG-era shows had holodecks for the same reason. The whole reason Roddenberry came up with the silly duplicate-Earths idea was because he knew it was the only way he could convince a network that the show would be affordable to make. Pure creativity is all that matters in print, but in television, you have to be creative within the restraints of budget and practicality.